Bottle stopper



T. N. SHAFFER Nov. 2, 1965 BOTTLE STOPPER 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed May 28, 1962 Nov. 2, 1965 T. N. sHAFFER BOTTLE STOPPER Filed May 28. 1962 1.7 8 IIT/6. 6

2 Sheets-Sheet 2 United States Patent C 3,215,298 BOTTLE STOPPER Thomas N. Shaier, 9202 Saybrook Ave., Silver Spring, Md. Filed May 28, 1962, Ser. No. 198,345 7 Claims. (Cl. 21S-90) This invention relates to a bottle stopper. The principal object of this invention is to provide a new type of bottle stopper which is self-energizing in that any pressure developed within the bottle not only causes the stopper to seal more positively but in addition causes the jaws which hold the stopper to the bottle neck to hold more tightly.

A further object of this invention to provide a bottle stopper which can be lapplied to a bottle and removed from the bottle with a minimum of effort.

A further object of this invention is to provide a bottle stopper which is clamped to the bottle neck by hinged jaws, the hinge being located above the stopper so that any force tending to push the stopper from the bottle is transferred directly to the hinge, the hinge being located close to the bottle top so that the force of the stopper on the hinge results in an inward movement of the jaws on the neck rather than an upward movement.

A further object is to provide a bottle stopper which is clamped to the bottle neck by lever action jaws, similar to ice tongs; the jaws being so shaped and interconnected that any force tending to push the stopper from the bottle causes the jaws to increase their clamping force on the bottle neck.

A further object of this invention is to provide a bottle stopper which includes a hollow expansible member that extends above the bottle neck, the interior of theexpansible member being in communication with the pressure in the bottle, the expansible member having an area Where it seals against the bottle top or neck, the portion of the expansible member adjacant to and above the sealing area being free to expand so that a rising pressure within the bottle causes the expansible member to expand and thus increase the pressure on the sealing area.

A further object to this invention is to provide an ex pansible bottle stopper which has a sealing portion that contacts either the bottle top or the inside edge of the bottle opening this sealing section being pressed upon the bottle by a resilient member resulting in a primary seal between the stopper and the bottle.

Many types of bottle Stoppers have been devised for use with bottles containing carbonated beverages. Several of these have an expansible plug like member which is inserted into the neck of the bottle and which is then expanded so as to seal against the bottle neck. The expansion may be caused by the rising pressure within the bottle, or by manual action, or by a combination of the two. A number of the Stoppers of this type depend upon friction alone to retain the stopper in the bottle neck. As the bottle necks are usually wet and quite slippery there is considerable danger of the stopper being blown from the bottle. Therefore, some of these Stoppers have in addition some sort of clamp that grasps the outer periphery of the neck. This is especially true of those stoppers that use the gas pressure to expand the plug.

All of these expansible plug Stoppers require appreciable manual effort to stretch the stopper, or to compress the stopper, or to clamp the stopper to the bottle. The same is true of the cap type sealers that are effective in holding the pressure without leakage. These forces have been found necessary in order to overcome the pressures generated by the carbonated beverages. Because the parts engaged by the lingers during manual operation of the stopper or cap are necessarily small, the pressure on the fingers during this operation is frequently uncomfortable or even objectionable. In this invention the pressure in the bottle, instead of opposing the sealing and clamping actions of the stopper, is used to actually augment these properties of the stopper. This results in a great reduction in the necessary application and removal forces.

It is further to be noted that the prior art bottle sealing devices frequently become inoperative after a limited period of use due to a sticky residue being deposited on the parts of the device by reason of contact with the contents of the bottle. This residue prevents the necessary relative movement of the parts to permit proper operation thereof and also materially increases the effort required to remove the device from the bottle. The structure of the instant invention operates to overcome these disadvantages.

Further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the -following description taken in conjunction with the accompaning drawings wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of a preferred form of this invention;

FIGURE 2 an exploded view, with parts in section, of the stopper shown in FIGURE l;

FIGURE 3 a longitudinal sectional view of the stopper shown in FIGURE l;

FIGURE 4 a longitudinal sectional view of the stopper shown in FIGURE 1 immediately after application to the bottle and before the pressure has risen above atmospheric;

FIGURE 5 a view similar to FIGURE 4, showing the relationship of the parts after the pressure in the bottle has risen above atmospheric;

FIGURE 6 a perspective view of a modified form of the invention;

FIGURE 7 a perspective view of one of the two identical clamping members of the stopper assembly shown in FIGURE 6; and

FIGURE 8 a longitudinal sectional view of the stopper shown in FIGURE 6 applied to a bottle and with the internal pressure above atmospheric.

With particular reference to FIGURES 1 to 5, 11 designates a clamping member, 12 designates a support for an expansible stopper and 13 designates the expansible stopper, which has a top portion that is roughly disc shaped and a portion extending downwardly that is inserted in the bottle. Clamp 11 has four prongs 14 that engage the bead of the bottle, a finger engaging release lever 1S, and a hinge 16. The hinge as shown here is formed by reducing the thickness of the metal clamp in this localized area so that the clamp is relatively free to bend. It is obvious that a conventional hinge and hinge pin could also be used if desired. The butting heels 17 of the hinge portion prevent pivotal movement of the hinge when a load is applied between the diametrically opposed prongs as when the clamp is snapped over the bead of the bottle.

Support 12 transfers the upward gas pressure on the stopper 13 directly to the bottom of the hinge 16. It also supports the stopper 13 against ballooning under gas pressure such as would occur if a thin and/or weak material is used for the stopper. This part could -be eliminated by making stopper 13 strong and stii enough to withstand the bursting pressure of the gas and to transfer the upward load on the stopper 13 directly to and only to hinge 16. At assembly the ears 18 on the support 12 engage the oversize holes 19 in clamp 11 and thus loosely retain the support in the clamp.

The stopper 13 is made of rubber or any other suitable expansi-ble material. Buttons 20 are small projections on the sides of slot 21. At assembly they project into the hole in clamp 11 located above hinge 16 and thereby retain the stopper 13 in place in the support 12. The slots in the lower end of the stopper 13 reduce the maximum elongation required to remove the stopper from the male part of the mold during manufacture of the stopper.

Installation ot` the stopper on the bottle is achieved by simply placing the stopper in upright position on the top of the bottle and then applying pressure on the upper surface of clamp 11, prefer-ably near the center of clamp 11. A light pressure is all that is necessary to spring the resilient clamp 11 over bead 23. Since one side of clamp 11 almost invariably slides over bead 23 before the other, very little springing is required to force the other side over bead 23. The four prongs 14 not only center clamp 11 on the bottle but also serve to maintain clamp 11 in an erect, untilted position when the stopper is energized by the trapped gases in the bottle.

FIGURE 3 shows the stopper assembly in the free condition and FIGURE 4 in the installed position on a bottle before the internal pressure has risen. It will be noted that -sloping section 22 in FIGURE 3 has 4become horizontal in FIGURE 4. This has resulted from the bead 23 of the bottle Abeing interposed between the prongs 14 and the sealing cone 24. The deiiection of sloping section 22 to a horizontal plane provides an intimate engagement between sealing cone 24 and bead 23 and thereby effects a low pressure, primary seal. The resiliency of sections 22 and 24 automatically compensates for manufacturing variations in the size and shape of the bottle opening. As the pressure in the bottle rises due to the release of the adsorbed gas (see FIGURE 5), the pressure differential existing on sloping surface 22 causes a large increase in the unit pressure on the sealing area between cone 24 and bead 23. This sealing pressure will thus at all times be considerably above the unit gas pressure in the bottle and assures a pressure tight seal. Meanwhile the gas pressure on the upper inside surface of stopper 13 is transferred to support 12 and applied to the hinge 16. The geometry of hinge 16 is such that upon pivotal movement at this point,A prongs 14 move inwardly below the bottle bead instead of upwards and off of the bottle. This can be seen by an examination of FIGURE 4. Lines -25 are drawn from the center of hinge 16 to the points of contact of prongs 14 on bead 23. For the sake of simplicity it can be assumed that there is no friction between prongs 14 and bead 23. Any load applied to hinge 16 must -then be ultimately balanced by pressure of prongs 14 on bead 23 and the balancing forces will lie along lines 25-25. Line 26-26 is drawn tangent to the curvature of the lower outer surface of the bead at the point where the slope makes the greatest deviation from the Vertical. All that is necessary to keep prongs 14 from slipping off the bottle is to; (a) shape clamp so that prongs 14 contact bead 23 below this point of greatest deviation from vertical; and (bf) locate hinge 16 low enough so that angle ABC formed by lines 25-25 and 26-26 is 90 or preferably less than 90.

Release of the stopper assembly from the bottle is achieved by applying upward pressure on the release lever 15. Only a slight pressure is required to do this as the only forces to be overcome are friction between the prongs 14 and bead 15 and the small component of the stopper retaining forces that lie along lines 25-25.

FIG. 5 shows how the cavity in the stopper extends into that portion of the stopper that extends over the top of the bottle. Due to the pressure in the bottle exerting force into the portion of the cavity that extends over the top of the bottle, the stopper operates similar to a selfselaling tire. As in the case of the self-sealing tire the internal pressure inilates the stopper against the support 12 on the one side and the lip of the bottle on the other. This positively seals the bottle. The higher the pressure the tighter the seal.

The stopper shown in FIGURES 6, through 8 is a variant ofthe stopper shown in FIGURES 1 through 5. It is composed of six parts; two half clamps 27, one resilient stopper 28, two tubular rivets 29 and a restraining band 30. The rivets 29 act as hinge pins and they should preferably be located in the same position with respect to the bottle bead and prongs 36 as was hinge 16 to bead 23 CTI and prongs 14 in the above design. It differs basically from the previously described stopper in that the clamp is composed of two identical parts that are hinged together in the conventional manner instead of the one piece clamp with a thin section that acts as a hinge. The method of retaining the stopper is also different.

The half clamps 27 have butting section 31 which prevents backwards rotation iof the hinge when the clamp assembly is sprung over bead 35 on installation. The half clamps 27 extend past the hinge and underneath the other half clamp. These extensions 32, are preferably shaped to match the curvature of the top surface of stopper 28 and Iact as stopper supports. They contain slots 33 into which buttons 34 are inserted so as to retain stopper 23 in place. These slot-s 33 allow a limited freedom of action for buttons 34. The action of stopper 28 is identical to the operation of stopper 13 described above during installation, sealing and removal. The upward force of stopper 28 however is taken by -stopper supports 32 in this variant rather than directly on the hinge. This force becomes a moment which tends to rotate the half clamps 27, about hinge pins 29. This moment clamps prongs 36 on bead 35 even more iirmly than were prongs 14 in the iirst design.

Restraining band 30 prevents overexpansion of stopper 28. It can be eliminated by making the stopper 28 stiff and strong enough in this area to resist the gas pressure.

Application and removal of this stopper is identical to that described for the first stopper.

It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that various changes may be made in the invention without departing from the spirit and scope thereof and therefore the invention is not limited by that which is shown in the drawings and described in the specilication, but only as indicated in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A closure for application to a bottle having an external bead about its mouth and a smooth interior neck surface, said closure comprising a stopper retainer having a pair 'of spring actuated -clasping jaws for engagement with the external bead of the bottle, said jaws being connected t-o a spring portion in the center of the retainer and said spring portion comprising a downwardly bent loop, a stopper made of resilient material that is to be retained on the bottle by said stopper retainer, said stopper having a low domed top extending beneath the center portion of the retainer land a portion `adapted to extend over the top of the bottle, means for retaining said retainer on said stopper with said loop disposed substantially at the center of 4said top, a cavity extending throughout the stopper including that portion of the stopper that is to extend over the top of the bottle, the bottom central portion of the stopper having an opening that provides communication between the cavity in the stopper and the interior of the bottle when the closure is applied to the bottle, whereby `gas pressure in the cavity of the stopper when the closure is `applied to the bottle will force the stopper downwardly against the top ofthe bottle to provide a seal and will force the center top portion of the stopper upw-ardly against said loop in the center of the retainer to bend said loop, thereby forcing said jaws into engagement with said bead to retain said stopper in said bottle.

2. A closure for application to a bottle having an external bead about its mouth and a smooth interior neck surface, said closure comprising a clamping means having a .pair of jaws connected by a hinge substantially midway between said jaws and a hinge stop, said jaws being adapted to engage diametrica'lly opposed portions of said yexternal bead, said stop comprising abuting means to limit rotation o-f the hinge in a direction causing separation of said jaws, a bottle stopper support `secured to said clamping means and engaging said hinge, a stopper carried by said stopper support, said stopper comprising a resilient body, said body having a portion adapted to extend over the top edge Iof the bottle, with a second portion adapted to engage the inner edge of the bottle top and a third portion adapted to extend into the bottle, said -body having a cavity therein extending into that portion of the body that is adapted to extend over the top edge of the bottle and communicating with the interior of the bottle, whereby gas pressure in `said cavity will expand said body to engage said first and second .portions with rthe bottle to provide a seal and will move said support upwardly to flex said hinge and move said jaws into clamping engagement with said bead.

3. A closure for application to a bottle having an external bead about its mouth and a smooth interior neck surface, said closure comprising a stopper of resilient material having a radial portion for extending over and engaging the top of the .bottle and a downwardly extending axial portion to be received in the opening in the bottle, said stopper having a cav-ity within said radial and taxi-al portions and communicating with the interior of the bottle when said stopper is in place thereon, that portion of the cavity within said radial porti-on extending over the top of the bottle when the stopper is in place, a stopper retainer having opposed downwardly extending fingers terminating in inwardly extending prongs for engaging beneath the bead on the bottle, said stopper retainer including a horizontal portion connecting said fingers and central hinge means on said horizontal portion to permit radi-al movement of said fingers, said stopper engaging the center of said horizontal portion, and means securing said retainer to said stopper whereby expansion of said stopper by gas pressure within said cavity will provide a sealing engagement between `said stopper and the upper edge of said bottle and wil-l cause pivotal movement -of said horizontal portion about said hinge means to move said prongs into clamping engagement with said bottle.

4. A closure as defined in claim 3 in which linger engaging means is provided to facilitate removal of said closure from the bottle.

5. A closure for application to a bottle having an external 4bead about its mouth and a smooth internal neck surface, said closure comprising a stopper element, said stopper element comprising an annular body of resilient materia-1 and of a diameter to extend over land engage the top edge of a bottle when positioned thereon, said body having an annular cavity therein extending into the portion which extends over the top edge of the bottle and said body having an opening therein providing communicat-ion between said cavity and the interior of the bottle when said stopper element is in position thereon, a clasping member comprising a center part disposed over said stopper member and terminating in a pair of spaced clasping jaws having means for engaging beneath the external lbead lon the bottle, said clasping member being formed of resilient material, said center part having a portion engaging the upper surface of said stopper member adjacent the center thereof, and means secu-ring said clasping member to said stopper member, whereby with said stopper member positioned on the top edge of the bottle and with said jaws engaging beneath the external bead of the bottle, gas pressure developed within the bottle will enter said cavity to expand lsaid stopper member in all directions with said center part of said clasping member being moved upwardly at the center to clamp said jaws to the external bead and with said stopper member being forced into sealing engagement with the top edge of the bottle by said gas pressure.

6. A closure member for application to a bottle as dened in claim 5, in which each jaw of the clasping member has a pair of int-urned prongs on the end thereof.

7. A closure member for application to a bottle as defined in claim 5, in which a rigid support extends over the top of the resilient stopper to transfer pressure upwardly from the t-op of the resilient stopper to the center part of the clasping member adjacent the center thereof, the rigid support having ears extending from the opposite sides thereof that project into holes in the clasping memfber, said holes being larger than the ears, whereby the rigid support is loosely held in position in relation to the clasping member.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 673,048 4/01 Dunkley 21S-91 2,777,125 l/57 Weisse 21S-90 2,786,594 3/57 Rigolot 21S-47 2,848,130 8/58 Iesnig 21S-52 THERON E. CONDON, Primary Examiner.

EARLE I DRU'MMOND, GEORGE O. RALSTON,

Examiners. 

1. A CLOSURE FOR APPLICATION TO A BOTTLE HAVING AN EXTERNAL BEAD BAOUT ITS MOUTH AND A SMOOTH INTERIOR NECK SURFACE, SAID CLOSURE COMPRISING A STOPPER RETAINER HAVING A PAIR OF SPRING ACTUATED CLASPING JAWS FOR ENGAGEMENT WITH THE EXTERNAL BEAD OF THE BOTTLE, SAID JAWS BEING CONNECTED TO A SPRING PORTION IN THE CENTER OF THE RETAINER AND SAID SPRING PORTION COMPRISING A DOWNWARDLY BENT LOOP, A STOPPER MADE OF RESILIENT MATERIAL THAT IS TO BE RETAINED ON THE BOTTLE BY SAID STOPPER RETAINER, SAID STOPPER HAVING A LOW DOMED TOP EXTENDING BENEATH THE CENTER POR TION OF THE RETAINER AND A PORTION ADAPTED TO EXTEND OVER THE TOP OF THE BOTTLE, MEANS FOR RETAINING SAID RETAINER ON SAID STOPPER WITH SAID LOOP DISPOSED SUBSTANTIALLY AT THE CENTER OF SAID TOP, A CAVITY EXTENDING THROUGHOUT THE STOP- 